Conventional safety apparatuses for elevators which use electrical or electromechanical switches in order to determine the locking or closing state of an elevator door are known from the prior art. In this case, an elevator cab should only be permitted to travel when all of the doors are locked. If, for example, an elevator door is blocked and cannot be closed, the cab should also not be able to continue its journey. In order to achieve this, in conventional elevator apparatuses the corresponding electromechanical switch opens a contactor at the door, which contactor is connected into the drive circuit and therefore directly interrupts the drive by virtue of the power supply to the drive motor being interrupted by the contactor, for example.